This is the main reason Concord’s entirely avoidable failure pissed me off so much. Wildlight’s designers and artists spent years creating an entire game’s worth of assets (they lacked style and identity, but they weren’t bad) and now the game is dead, the studio is dead, and nobody will ever see or use those assets for something better.
Asset reuse in videogames is essential, and we need to embrace it, says Assassin's Creed and Far Cry director: 'We redo too much stuff'
Submitted 2 weeks ago by kip5608@retrolemmy.com to games@lemmy.world
Comments
rtxn@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Ok wait what? Was the game not called Concord? What’s Wildlight? I’m confused.
rtxn@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Wildlight is a game development studio made up of former Respawn developers who (allegedly) worked on the Titanfall and Apex Legends games. Highguard was their first game: a pointless, live service, content incomplete multiplayer shooter. It was revealed in late 2025 as the final showcase of The Game Awards, which resulted in a collective sigh of frustration from the audience. The game was released on the 26th of January to a decent peak player count of over 100k (97k players on Steam). It was immediately clear that the game was in a terrible state and it couldn’t retain the players. Two weeks after launch, Wildlight fired most of its staff because Tencent, which had been secretly funding the development, had pulled out. It was later announced that servers would shut down on the 12th of March, 45 days after launch.
Even before launch, it was mockingly compared to Concord, another pointless. live service, content incomplete, competitive multiplayer shooter that only lived for two weeks.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The meme was because it was clearly expensive and also so obviously going to flop, much like Concord. The difference in the money wasted between the two was probably an order of magnitude more for Concord though.
eupraxia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Yea, this is common practice and most of the time you never hear about it, especially if a game is canceled before announcement. Last project I worked on, we couldn’t even take screenshots for our portfolios after it was canceled. Leading to most everyone on the team having a two-year gap where they did great work and had absolutely nothing to show for it.
dukeofdummies@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You know, if it meant that more time would be spent on quality, or reducing crunch, I’d be ok with this.
But ubisoft did it, so it’s because they wanna cut the department 20% and give that profit to the shareholders. So no.
AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Fun fact that you may or may not have heard before: the light flicker animation in Half Life Alyx is actually the exact same one used in the original Quake. Half Life 1 was built on the Quake engine, and the same animation was carried over into Source and then Source 2.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The message is “Games need to get cheaper to make, not shittier and more expensive.”
VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What assets you’re recycling is a huge factor. There are crates in Fallout 4 that were originally made for Oblivion. You almost certainly won’t notice unless you’re looking for it. Similarly, I’m playing Divinity Original Sin 2 and there are a bunch of little things that were reused for Baldur’s Gate 3, like vases. Again, most people will probably never notice.
On the other hand, BioWare reusing animations that were originally created for Neverwinter Nights in Mass Effect 3 is jarring, even though those animations generally worked fine in KOTOR. Or Assassin’s Creed 3 using combat animations in the modern day segments that were designed for the flintlock-wielding enemies in the historic segments.
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Interesting article. I think it would be really stupid to not reuse stuff if your game is set in a realistic universe (would be different for a cartoonish universe).
In fact, it would even be a way to avoid using AI (even if I think we’ll end up with devs reusing stuff and using AI).
Then you can use colors or lighting to create a different feel to the game, just like different movie directors can film the same place in a totally different way.
tal@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Or, to put it another way…if you aren’t spending your assets on modeling and texturing and animating a bear for the thirtieth time, you can be off modeling and texturing and animating a space squid or something new, and having both it in game as well as a bear that looks kind of like bears in other games.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
If only there was a communal source of assets that people and companies can contribute to and pull from. If something doesn’t quite fit your game you could instead spend 10 hours editing and adjusting a premade model instead of 40 hours making it from scratch. Then upload the new model for someone else to start with later.
capt_wolf@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Meanwhile, me walking into that same exact house or neighborhood that’s used in every indie game…
kossa@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
A godsd for people without spatial awareness. But apparently I am too shitty to even leverage that. Never recognized anything and will get lost immediately in every game.
When you need to backtrack a house, cave, whatever on a timer that game is over for me 😅
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This one is interesting. On its face, I definitely agree with the idea that asset reuse is essential. Ubisoft and Far Cry Primal are standout exceptions though. Ubisoft in general has reused so many of not just their assets but also their gameplay systems, such that despite having a half dozen different concurrent franchises, it can often feel like they’re all the same game, and that’s what hurt the likes of Star Wars Outlaws; we’ve played that game so many times already, even if it looks like Star Wars this time.
And as for Far Cry Primal: reusing a reload animation is one thing. Reusing your open world map is something else entirely, speaking from experience. The game often is discovering that map, so if I’ve seen it before, the game can become very boring very quickly. If a sequel to a 2D platformer was the exact same levels but your character had a few new tricks up their sleeve, you probably wouldn’t be happy about that either. Likewise, I’m not interested in Crackdown 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, or any other open world that reuses the same map. The map is important to be different each time. Spider-Man needs to be in New York, but in order to make that interesting, you’re going to need to lean heavily on instanced indoor missions between the open world stuff; Insomniac’s games are well-done, but I can’t say I’m dying to play Spider-Man 2 after the first game and Miles Morales. I’ve only played two Yakuza games, so I don’t know yet how I’ll feel about that map re-use, but they do seem to rely a lot on instanced interiors to mix things up.
Focal@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
The fun thing about Yakuza to me, is that the nap kind of becomes its own character. I love going around Kamurocho and doing various side missions. I’d say that since the map is also very small, it allows for that kind of intimate “get to know the map and watch it grow with each game”-vibe.
Ghostie@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Yakuza is a prime example of “It’s not the size but how you use it.”
Brosplosion@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Tears of the Kingdom does use the same map but adds verticality that is not in BOTW. I think that is forgiveable since it honestly feels very different in playing.
red_tomato@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If the game is still good, why not?
Majora’s Mask heavily reuses assets from Ocarina of Time, and that game is in no way any worse because of it.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The time loop mechanic is definitely something you come up with when you need to do a lot with a little, and while it super worked for plenty of people, it really was the reason I’d say it was far worse than Ocarina.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh… he probably thought he said something revolutionary.
VitoRobles@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Right? FromSoft like… No shit?
XiberKernel@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
For the money those firms are spending on creating those games, he just might be.
teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I mean, yeah, they already release the same game over and over. Not sure why they wouldn’t eventually realize they can also just use the same assets every time.
solok333777@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
Anything that reduces costs is redirected into shareholder profit increase and executive compensation increase. If reduction of cost actualy led to those savings being reallocated for quality increase it would be far too vague of a notion for profit minded execs to understand or promote…
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 2 weeks ago
Nintendo reusing the clouds and bush assets on Super Mario Bross walked so AAA could reuse fighting animation between different genres of games.
BurgerBaron@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Rare time I agree with a Ubisoft employee.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, for sure. Definitely agreed. However, the specific examples cited in the article could’ve been done better. You can modify existing assets to make them less-obviously reused.
diabetic_porcupine@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sounds like the perfect use case for NFTs
scathliath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
This is because someone wanted to reuse the sabertooth in Far Cry Primal for an Assassin’s Creed scene, isn’t it?
TaterTot@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Uh, yeah, 100%. Though I have to wonder who is even arguing against this?
Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Ive played hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of reused assets spread over Dink Smallwood mods and Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) user made campaigns
MrFinnbean@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thank you stranger! I had forgotten Dink Smallwood completely. Core memory unlocked!
Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
The game works on modern systems and are free to get ;)
BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Get on the ecology and circular economy train and only play games that reuse assets the sub-ocean will thank you!
/S
Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Ive played hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of reused assets spread over Dink Smallwood mods and Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) user made campaigns
grueling_spool@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
TIL there are mods for Dink Smallwood. Colour me intrigued!
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Arent placeholders a thing?
ozymandias117@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You see it all the time in Disney animations, Pixar animations, you see it with sprites being the same for clouds and bushes in Mario…
I don’t really see an issue with asset reuse, as long as the actions make sense in the new context
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Studios like Fromsoft are known for recycling assets to a very noticeable degree. It‘s just part of the game and another reason why AI makes so little sense in the creative world. Studios already have their asset libraries. They don‘t need to prompt something that already exists because they already have it. What they need are new ideas and AI is terrible at delivering that.
Honk@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
At this point, I’d be mad if I was playing a Fromsoft game and they didn’t have that animation where you’re pushing open large double doors.
dankm@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I don’t disagree with your main point, but I think the Mario sprite thing is just as easily explained by technical limitations as artistic ones.
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
You see it in every EA game, but they also reuse the gameplay itself.